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Credit & Copyright: John P. Gleason, Celestial Images
Explanation:
Most bright stars in our
Milky Way Galaxy reside in a disk.
Since our Sun also resides in this disk, these stars
appear to us as a
diffuse band that circles the sky.
The above panorama of a
northern band of the
Milky Way's disk covers 90 degrees and is a
digitally created mosaic of several independent exposures.
Scrolling right will display the rest of this spectacular picture.
Visible are many
bright stars,
dark dust lanes,
red emission nebulae,
blue reflection nebulae, and
clusters of stars.
In addition to all this matter that we can see,
astronomers suspect there exists even more
dark matter that we cannot see.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Milky Way - galactic plane
Publications with words: Milky Way - galactic plane
See also:
- APOD: 2023 December 12 Á Aurora and Milky Way over Norway
- Milky Way Rising
- APOD: 2023 July 18 Á Milky Way above La Palma Observatory
- APOD: 2023 July 16 Á Meteor and Milky Way over the Alps
- APOD: 2023 July 2 Á Milky Way and Aurora over Antarctica
- APOD: 2023 June 20 Á The Nandu in the Milky Way
- APOD: 2023 May 29 Á Milky Way over a Turquoise Wonderland